September 17, 2024

NEED TO KNOW

Vermont Medical Society Joins Senator Welch in Promoting the Physician Fee Stabilization Act

On Monday, September 16^th, the Vermont Medical Society and Vermont Academy of Family Physicians joined Senator Peter Welch at a press conference in Williston to advocate for his bi-partisan federal bill, the Physician Fee Stabilization Act. Welch’s bill aims to more than double Medicare’s budget neutrality threshold, which has resulted in reimbursement rate cuts year after year for primary care. Jessa Barnard, Executive Director of the Vermont Medical Society, said that since 2001 Medicare reimbursements have fallen by 29%. This bill aims to prevent cuts to Medicare reimbursement rates, to further stabilize Medicaid rates, and provide a predictable payment system for Vermont primary care practitioners. Anne Morris, M.D., President of the Vermont Academy of Family Physicians and Toby Sadkin, M.D., family physician at Primary Care Health Partners (PCHP) also spoke yesterday at the press conference held at the offices of PCHP.

Click to read the VT Digger article

Click to watch the MyChamplain Valley clip

VMS Kicks Off 2024 Candidate Receptions in Bennington County!

Thank you to all of the VMS members who attended our Bennington County Candidate Meet & Greet last week at the Mount Anthony Country Club in Bennington and thanks to Trey Dobson, MD, and Kimberley Sampson, MD, for hosting the event. It was an enjoyable evening, full of casual conversation and great company as we got to know the legislative candidates running for House and Senate seats from Bennington County. 

The VMS is hosting several candidate receptions across the State. In fact, tonight, September 17^th, is the Chittenden County Candidate Meet & Greet at the Hotel Vermont from 6-8pm. If you live or practice in Chittenden County its not too late to plan to come meet the candidates who could represent you in the Vermont House and Senate after the general election in November. Click here to learn about the other dates and locations, which include: Rutland County on Oct. 1st, Essex/Orleans County on Oct. 3^rd and Washington County on Oct. 16th. For questions please email Jill Sudhoff-Guerin at jsudhoffguerin@vtmd.org.

Join the VMS for a Congressional Town Hall Webinar Sept. 25^th at 12:15pm

Please join the VMS in a virtual Town Hall discussion with Vermont’s Congressional delegation and/or staff on Wednesday, September 25^th at 12:15-1:00pm. Do you have questions regarding federal healthcare policy that impacts Vermont clinicians for Senator Peter Welch, Senator Bernie Sanders, or Rep. Becca Balint? This discussion will provide you an opportunity to hear directly from our delegation on the federal issues that matter to you.  If you have specific questions you would like addressed, please email them by Sept. 23^rd to jbarnard@vtmd.org. 

Join the Zoom here.

Register Today for the 2024 Collaborative Meeting

The 2024 Collaborative Meeting of the Vermont Medical Society, American Academy of Pediatrics Vermont Chapter, Vermont Academy of Family Physicians, and Vermont Psychiatric Association being held Friday, November 1^st through Saturday, November 2^nd at Topnotch Resort and Spa in Stowe, VT.

AS a reminder, we are happy to offer childcare to those that register for before October 1st!

You don’t want to miss this opportunity to come together to learn, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues around the state. Register today for the meeting and to ensure you have childcare!

Blueprint for Health Trains Patient-Centered Medical Home Staff

Vermont’s Blueprint for Health is pleased to support Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMH) throughout the state. In a concentrated effort to expand the continued learning and development of Community Health Team (CHT) members in these settings, the Blueprint is offering a number of training opportunities for the remainder of 2024 and in 2025. Complete information and registration for these sessions can be found on our website at https://blueprintforhealth.vermont.gov/about-blueprint/education-training, but here is a sampling:

• Motivational Interviewing Basics courses and Structural Competency and Cultural Humility to Address Health Disparities and Inequities between December 2024 and February 2025. CEUs and CMEs will be available.
• Community Health Workers (CHW) in a Primary Care Setting: Professional Roles, Skills, and Conduct and CHW Supervision and Support between October 2024 and April 2025.
• Monthly pediatric trainings in conjunction with the Vermont Department of Health’s Family Child Health Division between September 2024 and July 2025. Additionally, a targeted 20-hour Touchpoints^TM training for staff at pediatric and family practices.

For more information, please contact the Blueprint for Health office via Julie.Parker@vermont.gov or on our website here.

MISC.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month

The following resources are available to support your efforts.

• Preventing Physician Suicide - Physicians are at a higher risk of suicide and suicidal ideation than the general population. This toolkit outlines how to identify and support at-risk physicians. Learn more.
• Suicide Prevention Guide - Gain insight into how your practice or system can effectively identify and treat patients at risk of suicide, including specific guidance on child and adolescent care. Learn more.

New AMA Analysis of Consolidation in PBM Markets

The American Medical Association (AMA) last week published its new annual analysis (PDF) of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) markets confirming low competition among these middlemen in the pharmaceutical supply chain and high vertical integration of PBMs with health insurance companies.  Based on 2022 data on commercial and Medicare Part D prescription drug plan enrollees, the AMA analysis is the most current snapshot of PBM market concentration at both the national and Part D region levels.

The report finds that:

• The four largest PBMs collectively have a 70% share of the national PBM market.
• CVS Health is the largest PBM (21.3% market share), followed by OptumRx (20.8%), Express Scripts (17.1%), and Prime Therapeutics (10.3%).
• At the local level, the average PBM market is highly concentrated according to federal antitrust guidelines.
• Eight-two percent of PDP region-level PBM markets are highly concentrated.
• This indicates that only a few PBMs supplied insurers with PBM services and suggests low competition among PBMs.

Primary Care Grand Rounds on September 20th from 12pm to 1pm - East of Last Chance: Choosing Paradise in Your Practice and Community

Hosted by: Geisel Community and Family Medicine & Northern New England Systems Transformation - Primary Care

Speaker:  Jack Westfall, MD, MPH

Join us to enhance your understanding of primary care initiatives, identify inequities in primary care and gain strategies to address them.

Dartmouth Health designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

WebEx Link

JOIN HERE

Meeting number (access code): 2630 032 7423

Meeting password: pmQMd9apm53

E/M Visit Complexity Add-On Code Reminders

Vermont’s Part B Medicare Contractor, NGS, has asked for help reminding Vermont practices that there is a new add on code for office (E/M) services to reflect office visit complexity, HCPCS Code G2211.  The code is used along with evaluation and management visits associated with medical care services that serve as the continuing focal point for all needed health care services and/or with medical care services that are part of ongoing care related to a patient's single, serious condition or a complex condition.  Resources to explain the use of the code include:

• CMS FAQs: hcpcs-g2211-faq.pdf (cms.gov)
• MLN MM13473: MM13473 - How to Use the Office and Outpatient Evaluation and Management Visit Complexity Add-on Code G2211 (cms.gov)
• AAFP resources: https://www.aafp.org/family-physician/practice-and-career/getting-paid/coding/evaluation-management/G2211-what-it-is-and-how-to-use-it.html

VMS Announces Physician Wellness Retreat, Jan 25-28^th

Join the Vermont Medical Society from Sunday, January 25th at 3pm through Tuesday, January 28th at 12pm for deep rest and a reprieve from the busy-ness of medicine.  Experience the benefits of mindfulness, restorative yoga practices and culinary medicine. Cultivate relationships with other physicians while you re-connect with what matters most to you in a grounding, natural environment. Instructors include Dr. Anna Benvenuto, a practicing OBGYN hospitalist, and Doug Wysockey-Johnson, the Program Director of Lumunos. Included with registration are all meals, overnight accommodations at Setu Retreat Center in Brattleboro, 1 massage, and all yoga/meditation/ group sessions & activities. Registration is open until October 18th.  Learn more and register here.

Next Commissioner Call Thursday, October 3rd

The Commissioner of Health, Mark Levine, MD, will hold his next Public Health Update with VMS Members Thursday, October 3rd at 12:30 pm. You can join the zoom meetings here.

He held his most recent VMS member call on August 1st. Notes from the call are here.

EVENTS

Saving Time: Practice Innovation Boot Camp

September 23 - 24 AMA Plaza, Chicago

This two-day, interactive boot camp from the AMA STEPS Forward® Innovation Academy equips attendees with the time-saving tools and strategies needed to reform their organizations and enhance professional satisfaction. CME eligible.

Learn more here.

The Vermont Chamber's Solutions Summit: A Focus on Vermont's Workforce

September 25, 2024

This dynamic event will bring together businesses, educators, and policymakers in a collaborative setting to discuss actionable, scalable workforce development solutions across all industries.

This year’s sessions will explore a range of critical topics around workforce development, including strengthening the link between education and employment, employee retention and recruitment, leveraging technology to improve efficiency, and understanding Vermont policies and legislation impacting our businesses.

Learn more and register here.

Birth Certificate Quality Improvement Initiative Learning Series

October 7, 2024

Virtual

In collaboration with the Vermont Department of Health Division of Family and Child Health and the Division of Health Statistics and Informatics, the Perinatal Quality Collaborative - Vermont (PQC-VT) is embarking on a vital statistics birth certificate quality improvement initiative (BCQII).

The project aim is to improve the accuracy of key birth certificate variables to support public health and quality improvement efforts. The objective is to increase birth certificate data quality in Vermont by providing education opportunities, technical assistance, and shared learning to Vermont hospital teams involved in birth certificate data collection.

Register here for the learning series.

2024 Clinical Quality Symposium - Comprehensive Care Nourishing Minds, Bodies, and Communities

October 16th Lake Morey Resort, Fairlee, VT

For more details on the sessions, speakers and to register, please visit here.

Vermont ACP Chapter Annual Scientific Meeting

October 18, 2024

Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, VT

Join us for the in-person Vermont ACP Chapter's Annual Scientific Meeting.

Meeting Highlights

• Atrial Fibrillation Update
• Lung Cancer Screening
• Update in Hospital Medicine
• Update in General Internal Medicine
• Physician Wellness
• Principles in the Care of Gender Diverse Persons
• Things We Do For No Reason
• Public Health Highlights

Designated for a maximum of 4.5 AMA PRAA Category 1 credit(s) and up to 4.5 medical knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. Visit the Meeting Hub for registration, agenda and details of the meeting here.

Learning Collaboratives on In-Basket Reduction and Reducing Regulatory Burden

October 2024 – March 2025

AMA STEPS Forward^® Innovation Academy is launching two new, six-month learning collaboratives on optimizing the in-basket to reduce work burden and rethinking how organizations apply regulatory rules to clinical practice. Each collaborative will convene dyads or triads of leadership representatives from multiple organizations to engage in a longitudinal shared learning experience. Limited space available. Learn more.

For more information about offerings from UVM CMIE, visit here.

Vermont Medical Society

134 Main Street

Montpelier, VT 05602

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